


Sentinel at Death's Door

by collectingnames



Series: Clayleb Week 2019 [2]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Battle Couple, Bruises, ClayLeb Week 2019, Fire, Healing, M/M, Secret Injury, Sleeping Together, callbacks to charmed Caleb, clayleb - Freeform, the glove of blasting doesn't require attunement ;)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-05
Updated: 2019-11-05
Packaged: 2021-01-23 09:22:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,835
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21317851
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/collectingnames/pseuds/collectingnames
Summary: Caduceus stops a crit on Caleb----Caduceus’ gaze turns at just the right moment to see the bolt of arcane energy tearing through the air towards Caleb.  His eyes wide with fear and knowing he cannot move fast enough to get out of the way or stay on his feet if he takes this blow.  Caduceus runs in, close enough that this’ll work.
Relationships: Caduceus Clay/Caleb Widogast
Series: Clayleb Week 2019 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1536146
Comments: 3
Kudos: 139





	Sentinel at Death's Door

**Author's Note:**

> For day 2, Revolution! Sentinel at Death's Door is a sweet ability and I'm here for it.

Caduceus’ gaze turns at just the right moment to see the bolt of arcane energy tearing through the air towards Caleb. His eyes wide with fear and knowing he cannot move fast enough to get out of the way or stay on his feet if he takes this blow. Caduceus runs in, close enough that this’ll work.

He stands right behind Caleb, flinging one hand out over his shoulder, the verdant green energy hums to life from his fingertips and heats the air around them. A Melora’s swirl shakes in the air in front of him.

“ _ I’ve got you! _ ” He screams as the divine magic pouring out robs the attack of its deadly vigor. 

The bolt still hits but instead of crying out in agony Caleb grinds his teeth in a pained grunt, stumbling back the foot separating the two of them. In the moment he doesn’t bother to check and see if their opponents are about to unleash more on them. The first thing he does is check the still smoldering spot on Caleb’s chest, opening the first few buttons of his shirt to better inspect the damage. Only half-acknowledging that his hands shake. It looks painful, and he’s barely hanging onto consciousness, but he’ll live, he’ll definitely live. He’ll live.

The sound of Beau’s lightning gauntlets connecting with flesh let him know that the fight is still going strong. Not strong enough that he can completely abandon it to focus on the wound underneath his palm. He scoops up Caleb with a bit of a grunt and scans the ground for a boulder or a tree or just anything large enough to give Caleb full cover. His eyes finally settle on a sort of shelf in the ground from where one hill cuts off without warning.

Caleb’s pained moans stop for a second when he sets him down and for a moment his heart skips a beat, “Mr. Caleb?”

Barely able to keep his head up he starts to tug at one of his gloves, clumsily pulling it off one finger at a time. His speech is a little slurred but he’s intelligible, “Give me your hand.”

He does as he says, “Caleb?”

The glove is a tight fit, not made for large giant-kin hands but his fingers are long and slender enough to make it work. Caleb runs the now bare hand over Caduceus’ cheek, brushing his hair away from where it’s fallen forward into his face. “Light them up for me, pretty.”

A chuckle flits out of him, filled with the adrenaline of battle, “Don’t move, we’ll be right back.”

He smooths Caleb’s hair back out of his face and notices the exhausted smile hanging at the corners of his mouth as he turns and runs back into the charge. In all honesty, he has no idea how the Glove of Blasting works but it seems intuitive enough. 

Keeping the gloved hand steady with the other he calls out ahead of him where the others are whaling on their last remaining foe, “Stand aside!”

Luckily they hear him and move in time to avoid the three bolts of fire raging towards them. The sheer force of the fire hurtling out of his grasp knocks him off balance and he has to plant his back foot firmly behind him to keep from keeling over. He’s struck just how different fire feels compared to the radiant light most of his spells invoke. It roars like his blood pounding in his ears, wild and only restrained enough to be wielded. The gust of hot air behind the flame stings at his eyes making it hard to aim. But sure enough the fire hits and devours its target.

“Was that the last of them?” Beau takes another step back from the now rapidly dying flames.

Jester comes up next to her, giant lollipop over her shoulder, “I think so,” she looks around to address her friends, “Okay, who’s hurt?” 

Caduceus wipes the sweat off his brow on the back of his hand, “I think we all got hit. One second, let me go get Caleb.”

He runs back to where he left him and sees Caleb straining to look over the hill at the fight. He takes one of his hands in his own and puts the other hand at the small of his back to keep him steady as he helps Caleb back up to his feet. He sways but doesn't seem as dazed anymore.

"Impressive," he mutters into Caduceus's chest when he falls into him.

He chuckles, tilts Caleb's head back by his chin, "Am I now?"

"You are always impressive," He clutches onto his sleeve to help stay upright, making him bend forward a little.

"Guys! Healing! Come on! Get over here, we can work off the adrenaline later!" Beau shouts over at them.

"Can you walk?" He eases Caleb's hand off his sleeve, still holding him steady.

He looks genuinely unsure for a moment, "Maybe, can I use you as a crutch?"

Caduceus chuckles, deep and throaty, there's a foot and change height disparity between them, he'd be bent over nearly in half if they did that. But he isn't about to turn down the opportunity for the two of them to be close, "Let's give it a shot."

Caleb swings an arm around Caduceus's shoulders, "_Scheisse_!"

"I can carry you. It's not that hard," Caduceus offers.

"Maybe...I can do this, just, one second, can you bend forward a little more?"

He does as he asks, folding himself even more. But while Caleb's distracted getting a good grip around his broad shoulders, he scoops him up, knocking his legs out from underneath him.

A surprised yelp comes out of Caleb, "Caduceus!"

"Yes?" There's no point trying to hide his grin.

“You aren’t going to put me down, are you?”

Caduceus starts back to rejoin the others, “No, can’t say I was planning on it.”

“Alright, then,” he blushes a little when the sound of Jester’s snickering comes into earshot.

“Damn, something definitely wanted you dead,” Beau comments when she gets a look at him.

“Could have been a lot worse, trust me,” seriousness creeps unbidden into his voice.

“Hmm,” Jester gives him a once-over to try and figure out how strong a spell she needs to use on him.

Caleb lets himself ease against Caduceus’s chest, “Are we going to stop for the night after this? Or are we continuing?”

“We’re all hurt, right?” Jester looks around at everybody for a response, and when she gets a few mumbling ‘yes’es and affirmative head nods she recites a prayer under her breath before tapping Caleb on the head, “There! Good question though. Set up camp or keep going?”

The thought occurs to him that there might be other injuries that Caleb hasn’t mentioned yet, “The sun’s almost gone. It’s probably better if we just go ahead and set up for the night. I don’t think we’re going to get to the next town before we lose the light.”

They venture a little further into the woods looking for a suitable clearing but once they find a good spot camp goes up quickly. Soon they get a fire going and start heating up rations. The night air blows cold through the trees, making them wander around camp with their coats wrapped tight around them. Caduceus’s eyes keep flicking over to where Caleb sits on the ground with his back against a tree, deep in a conversation with Nott that he can’t hear over the crackling of the fire. He hasn’t moved from that spot since he first sat down, winded and close to shaking, still insisting he was fine though. Nott laughs at something in the conversation but concern still lays heavy on her brow. Hopefully, it’s all fine. It’s been a long time since the last instance Caleb tried to hide an injury, now’s no time to fall back into old habits, especially that one. 

He shakes off the thought and starts pulling bowls out of his bag, “Soup’s ready!”

He fixes two bowls and hands the ladle off to Beau. Checking over the fire, Caleb’s still sitting there against the tree, starting to doze off now, head lolling over onto one shoulder. 

“Caleb,” he holds one of the bowls out to him.

“Hm? What?” He jolts awake, “Oh, yes, thank you, Caduceus.”

He sits down next to him, low so the others won’t hear, “Did you hurt your leg?”

Caleb freezes, staring down intently at his soup, “No.”

“Are you sure?” He presses the question.

He sighs and sets his soup down, “I didn’t mean to hide it. We just, we’d already started healing up and looking for someplace to camp and I didn’t want to slow us down. It’s fine anyway, it’ll heal just fine on its own, it’s just painful to walk on.”

“Which leg?”

He sticks out his right leg, “I fell and landed wrong. It feels worse than a sprain or a twist but it’s far from agony. I just need to sleep it off.”

“Let me check?”

He sighs but nods yes.

He pulls off the boot and Caleb sucks in air through his teeth, fists clenching in the grass. Pushing the pant leg up to about calf height he can get a better look at it. It’s an angry bruise spreading up from his ankle, already turning yellow and purple. How bad had it been, to begin with, if this was it  _ after  _ a round of healing? Well, the bruise is bad but it definitely doesn’t look broken. If it ever was broken it was probably a hairline fracture that Jester’s healing got down to a bone bruise. Putting his hands directly over it makes him flinch, almost kicking him in the face.

“Sorry!” 

“Just stay still for me, okay?” He pours a  _ Cure Wounds  _ into his leg, it’s not much, he’s too tired to be capable of much more than that but it’ll have to do for now. “Better?”

He experimentally starts to move his leg, wincing once or twice, “Better.”

Caduceus sets his boot and pant leg back to rights and sits down next to him where he was before, “I can splint it in the morning if it still hurts.”

Caleb relaxes a little, rests his head on Caduceus’s shoulder, “Thank you,  _ Liebling _ .”

“Not a problem,” he wraps an arm around Caleb’s shoulders, lets his hand rest in his hair.

Caduceus can’t recall falling asleep when the dawn light streaming through the trees wakes him up, a blanket draped over the two of them. Caleb still sleeps soundly against him, a deep, bone-tired sleep. Deep enough that he could probably get up without rousing him. Instead, he draws the blanket tighter across them and lets himself fall back asleep. Before he's gone again he can hear Caleb shift to nestle in closer to him and mumble some sleepy Zemnian that he can't understand but draws a smile to his lips regardless.


End file.
